MoviePass Lifts AMC Ban, Acquires Moviefone

The running feud between movie ticket subscription service MoviePass and theatrical exhibition chain AMC seems to have quietened down a bit.

It began when AMC tried to ban purchasing e-tickets using MoviePass in its theaters. Then MoviePass themselves disallowed the use of their service at certain AMC locations. Now, MoviePass, which currently counts two million monthly subscribers, has opted to stop the latter.

Deadline indicates the bans supposedly only happened because MoviePass was testing the patterns of its suddenly huge new subscriber base, with a little under 2% of locations were affected by the ban (albeit in major locations). Now it seems MoviePass has decided the ban wasn’t worth it.

Talks between AMC and MoviePass have stalled regarding the movie service trying to get a cut of AMC’s revenue. Landmark Theaters has already made such a deal, while CineMark has created its own similar pass in order to compete.

Helios and Matheson Analytics, the majority owner of MoviePass, have also announced the acquisition of Moviefone – the pioneering interactive info service which was sold to AOL for $388 million in 1999. The site, which currently has 6 million monthly unique visitors, sold to Helios for cash and stock for a total less than 5% of that AOL deal.